West Student Essays Get Nod from NASA

Expanding on a topic in the new curriculum, seventh-graders at West Middle School researched and wrote argumentative essays debating “Is Space Exploration Worth the Cost?”

The essays were sent to NASA to be read and judged by programmers, engineers, and payload operations officers who currently work for the International Space Station program. In addition to judging the essays, they also sent well thought out comments on the students’ writing. These included inspiring messages validating the importance of argumentative writing in their jobs to justify training expenses.

The students were rewarded with some great gifts and prizes from NASA, including zero gravity pens, astronaut ice cream, mission patches, bookmarks, pencils, and lollipops. The grand prize essay winner was Riot Stephens. First place went to Dylan Whitely, second place to Hannah Ludlow, and third place to Kaedence Jennings.